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What is Driving the Bears’ Defensive Dominance?

| December 1st, 2023

Last night I dove deep into the Bears’ tape from Monday’s big win in Detroit — throughout the stream I talked through:

  • What did the Bears do so well early to rattle Josh Dobbs? Where is their scheme winning?
  • Which defenders are leading their defensive units?
  • What, if anything, is still wrong with the Bears’ defense? Can their problems be fixed?
  • What fueled the good parts of the Bears’ Sunday offense?
  • Who stood out on the Bears’ offensive line? Who was left lacking?
  • What made Chicago’s late playcalling so… ugly? How did that affect their scheme?
  • Rants & ravings about the future of the Bears
  • And much, much more

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Your Turn: What are your Thanksgiving plans?

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Checking the Tape: Bears vs Vikings

| October 18th, 2023

Watching the Bears’ tape is a mess — nothing meshes together. What Getsy wants to do isn’t what Fields wants to do, and the Bears can’t do anything that Fields wants to do well against blitzing teams.

You can tell Getsy’s answers to Minnesota’s blitzes were quick throws out wide, but Fields couldn’t execute some of them and Whitehair’s snaps ruined others.

Then, the Bears pivoted towards more max protect. Fields looked more comfortable, but the OL couldn’t ID blitzes properly and gave away bad matchups (like Foreman on Hunter/Foreman on a blitzer with runway) leading to more pressure, no throws downfield, and the QB taking more hits.

Some of the above is still on Getsy, because plenty of routes too WAY too long to resolve against the blitz — Mooney jukes the air in the red zone, Trent Taylor runs the longest whip route in existence, etc. Of course, neither is open in time to beat the pressure (and one leads to the INT).

It’s easy to make this out to be a QB-only problem, but it’s the same problem we’ve seen all season — when the Bears’ initial plan doesn’t work, Getsy and Fields’ philosophical disagreements result in awful football that can’t even compete with opposing defenses.

Of course, this magnifies every mistake that the OL makes — if CHI doesn’t get the exact look they want and perfect protection up front, the play might as well be over. It doesn’t feel like there’s much chemistry between the QB and his outlets when things go haywire.

But if all the above wasn’t bad enough, sometimes the Bears do get the exact look they want with perfect protection up front, like the play shown below (Yes, it’s the tweet that includes this very thread):

Read More …

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All-22 Tweets: Kyle Fuller vs. Oakland

| October 7th, 2015

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Four Tweets after studying Fuller (and only Fuller) on the coaches tape.

  • He played a flawless first half, blanketing four or five different players. Never targeted. Not once.
  • Lost Crabtree on key play in the Q3 & responded two plays later by dislodging a huge 3rd down pass at goal line. Saved TD.
  • Showed terrific closing speed for tackles all afternoon. And was aggressive with contact. Didn’t miss a tackle.
  • Unbelievable to think this was same guy who looked like he couldn’t play a few weeks ago. Played like top corner Sunday.

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